Church of St Stephen, Drašnice

The church of St Stephen stands on the hill of Kolednik above Drašnice on the Makarska Riviera. Today it is in ruins, but it is interesting because of its history and a lost inscription.

The single-nave church with a rectangular apse was long abandoned, and in 1980 it burned down in a fire. On the west façade are an entrance in a smooth stone frame, a smaller square window and, in the gable, an arched bell gable with shallow reliefs. The nave had an open gabled roof, and the apse a barrel vault. Along the east wall was a masonry altar with a stone mensa. Stylistically it belonged to the provincial Baroque of the 17th and 18th centuries. Built into the façade was an inscription from the 15th century that Herceg Stjepan Vukčić Kosača had carved in 1466 while travelling to Dubrovnik; it is kept in the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments (MHAS) in Split.

The church is a protected cultural good and is entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-4792.

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 hr, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: DGU (centre of the settlement).